


Of food and love

by Sarthker



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Comedy, F/M, Intelligent Harry Potter, Pre-Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Snake Mentor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-15 13:14:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29933958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarthker/pseuds/Sarthker
Summary: Hey guys!This idea was born out of a personal need for more Honks fics.First attempt at writing that ship, hope you enjoy it!  :D
Relationships: Harry Potter/Nymphadora Tonks
Comments: 5
Kudos: 13





	1. The-Boy-Who-Cooks?

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! 
> 
> This idea was born out of a personal need for more Honks fics. 
> 
> First attempt at writing that ship, hope you enjoy it! :D

Harry woke up to the banging sounds of his uncle’s fists on his cupboard’s door, just like he usually woke up for the past seven years of his life. After a while the banging stopped, no words needed to be exchanged. He knew exactly what was expected of him and so he prepared for his morning routine.

Cooking had never felt as a chore, not really. He always felt a weird fascination whenever he prepared the ingredients, he watched in deep focus and concentration when putting them on a pan or a pot, he always felt delighted when he finished a dish.

Even when he knew he wasn’t allowed to partake on the creations he enjoyed his task so much, it was one of the two things that allowed him to remain _sane_ with his estranged relatives. It was fortunate, also, that his skill in cooking had developed as well as it did, his ‘family’ had to live off of mediocre food for nearly a month after a particularly cruel beating. They realized that, if anything, the _freak_ could cook damn well.

It didn’t exempt him from his other ‘responsibilities’ around the house, however. He was still expected to clean the house, tidy the garden, trim his aunt’s award-winning brushes, do the laundry and a menagerie of other tasks and chores that his relatives were either too lazy or too stupid to do.

The other source of strength for young Harry laid in his dreams. He, in a twisted way, felt _safe_ when in the darkness of his cupboard, granting him the only other moment of the day he could truly relax. His dreams sometimes involved green and red fireworks, or at least he thought that’s what they were supposed to be. He dreamt of impossible things, flying brooms, talking animals, animated objects, warmth and love. In his dreams he had a family that cared for him, that _loved_ him. Although he couldn’t distinguish any of the faces he imagined, he often attributed that fact to the nature of dreams, deciding to gloss over it.

One face he could vividly remember, however, was his main comfort both asleep and awake. He clearly dreamt of a little girl, six or seven in age, of her uplifting spirit whenever she saw him, of her entrancing laugh, of her quirky demeanor, her clumsiness when tripping on almost everything, her ever-changing hair and eye color. Whenever he thought of her voice, his mood immediately improved, whenever he thought of the words she spoke, a sense of longing and melancholy crept into his young heart.

_“My little Harry. We will have so much fun together! Love you.”_

At least the beatings had lessened _a lot_ , nowadays he only had to be wary of the odd whipping so that he could _remember his place_ or to prevent his _freakishness_. Currently Harry thought that the physical punishment he still endured was more of an outlet for his uncle and cousin’s frustrations rather than to drive a point.

It wasn’t a perfect life, nor a good one by any measure but it was enough for him.


	2. Storms-a-brewin'

For the first time in gods knows how long, Harry had trouble sleeping. Perhaps it was because of the abnormally severe whipping he got the day before. Not that he could really blame his uncle, though. He was too preoccupied thinking about the literal girl in his dreams that he had burnt the toast he was preparing, as usual he was _severely_ admonished about not being grateful enough, with them giving him shelter, clothes and food, and wasting his _family’s_ money by burning the breakfast.

Thankfully they knew better than to break something. Mostly it was Vernon’s fury and Dudley’s insistence that turned the five or so lashes into the forty-five that he ended up with. Aunt Petunia usually disappeared whenever he was being _reprimanded_ , only to appear hours later to tend, rather rudimentary, to his injuries. 

Still, the family ended up having to buy some bland-tasting ready-to-eat meals, much to his cousin’s and uncle’s chagrin.

Once again, the ever-present banging sounds arose him from what little sleep he could get last night.

“BOY, YOU BETTER GET YOUR SORRY ASS OUT OF THERE. NOW!”

Oh boy, that couldn’t be good, not at all. Harry could hardly remember the last time he was woken up by his uncle’s shouting. That day wasn’t something he was eager to remember.

Hastily he tidied himself up as quickly and as proficiently as he could, opening the small door to stand in front of his uncle at the hallway.

“Uncle?”

Vernon sneered “You are lucky _boy_ ; we are going to the zoo for Dudley’s birthday. And YOU are coming with us”

Harry saw the malicious grin in his uncle’s face, immediately he grew suspicious. He was never taken out with the family, whenever they went out he was usually locked in his cupboard, to avoid any freakish accidents, obviously.

Why then did they decide to bring him with them? In spite of his age, Harry was incredibly observant and mature, he understood the way his _family_ thought and acted, more out of a need to survive than anything else.

He nodded, frightened.

The venom in Vernon’s words receded a little when he saw his nephew’s fear “I’m just going to tell you this once, _boy_. NO.FREAKISHNESS. You’ll behave or else!” Harry swore the veins on his uncle’s forehead were seconds away from bursting out. “And when we return, you WILL prepare dinner AND a birthday cake. ARE WE CLEAR?”

Aha. That was it. They _needed_ his cooking, perhaps after last day’s whipping session (and subpar meals) he thought he had gone too far. Honestly, Harry couldn’t decide if he should be amazed at his culinary skills, for they placated the ire in Vernon’s heart or depressed that his _family_ only saw him as a means to get delicious food on a daily basis.

Whatever the case may be, Harry wasn’t going to look at a given horse in the mouth. If the stars aligned _maybe_ he could even have fun! Beyond going to the school and shopping for groceries whenever he ran out of a given ingredient, this would be his first _real_ trip to the outside.

The excitement must have shown on his face because Vernon glared at him like never before, before taking a deep breath and mumbling something about _freaks_ and _their kind_ while he walked back upstairs.

“WE LEAVE IN AN HOUR. YOU BETTER BE READY BY THEN _BOY_ ” he heard before he had time to regain his composure.

With a wisdom that went far beyond his age, Harry decided to make some small snacks for his _family_ , even though he was sure it would go unappreciated, he knew his relatives would be _displeased_ with him if he didn’t do it.


	3. Fun times at the Zoo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An interesting visit at the zoo changes Harry's life completely.

The zoo was certainly an incredible experience for young Harry. Never before had he seen so many animals, most of them he didn’t even knew existed.

Taking in the new experience left him exhilarated. He felt an odd connection with some of the animals in captivity too ‘ _I live in a cage as well’_ he thought. Maybe he could even compare his family situation, as far as he was concerned his parents had died in a car accident, that idea always left him feeling wrong as it was hard to compare the images in his dreams with the scant facts that he was given. The rational side of him told him that his dreams were just that; images of people that never existed, of things that never happened. Deep in his heart, however, he _knew_ that his dreams were echoes of his past, of the family that he lost, of the people that loved him.

If one thing could sour his mood on such a fantastical day, however, it would most certainly be his cousin and his friend’s complaining. He was ever so glad he thought on making extra snack portions. Thankfully, despite the obvious loathing directed at him by Piers, the food managed to placate his aggressiveness somewhat, only making snide remarks every now and then.

It all came to a head when aunt Petunia and uncle Vernon decided to take the boys through the herpetarium. The nature of snakes deemed that they are usually an inactive bunch unless they are chasing prey OR fleeing from something. Obviously Dudders & co. would have issues with said reptilian attitude.

Now, Harry considered himself a somewhat shy if polite (based on his limited interactions with other people) kid, apparently his sense of moral was well developed for he felt bad whenever someone acted out, even more so if the victim of said actions were innocent or defenseless. This sentiment hadn’t extended to his own self-preservation, however, as he had no one to speak to whenever he was at the short end of the stick.

Nor no one who cared, really.

It didn’t come as a surprise then when young Harry was filled with all the righteous fury that a 9-year-old could muster watching his cousin and company banging into the enclosure of a beautiful (his thoughts) Boa Constrictor.

“Leave it alone Duds!” he said as he tried, and failed, to pull his cousin away from the glass panel.

Dudley, being the physical embodiment of chubbiness, easily shoved his scrawny cousin into the ground “shuddup, freak” they both kicked Harry on his ribs (although not too hard as he still had to cook for them) “figures, a freak defending animal” Piers snorted

“HEY, what are you kids doing?!” The timely intervention of a zookeeper had the two kids running away. (Un)fortunately for Harry, the keeper was more preoccupied with catching the pair of rascals than tending to the injured child. Be that as it may, Harry was once more left alone a situation which, ironically, favored him. A lot.

Still trying to gather his bearings and after squirming a bit on the floor in front of the boa’s enclosure, Harry noticed a small tapping noise. Looking at the glass panel dividing said enclosure and the rest of the herpetarium, he saw the Boa looking, _staring_ , at him whilst using its tail to softly tap on the glass.

Contrary to common sense and against all rational thinking in his head, Harry decided that his best course of action would be to _speak_ to the slithery predator.

_“Hey there, hope we didn’t disturb you too much”_

The boa hastily shook its head, doing a gesture that Harry interpreted as if it were shrugging its shoulders (as implausible as it may sound).

Not expecting the human-like response from this newly acquainted reptilian connection, Harry threw all caution to the wind, deciding to continue the conversation.

_“So… you understand me…”_ the boa nodded _“Do you understand English, then?”_ at this, the boa considered for a while before shaking its head.

“ _Not English… so I am not speaking English… then… can I speak snake?”_ the reptilian friend confirmed his suspicions.

“ _Wicked. Do you have a name?”_ the oviparous animal pointed at the information plaque outside the enclosure “ _That’s your species’ name, bugger. Never mind, I can think of one later”_ the boa nodded appreciatively.

Harry took care to read the rest of the plaque, he noticed the ‘This specimen was bred in the zoo’ legend at the bottom of it.

_“Huh, so I guess you have never been outside, have you?”_ The boa shook its head dejectedly, a feeling of apprehension crept up inside Harry’s heart “ _This is the first time I have really been outside; you know? My…relatives don’t like me very much. They are ashamed of me I think.”_ Without noticing, Harry’s hands were firmly placed on the glass barrier, the last of his words coming out as a whisper.

Harry felt a tingling sensation run through his whole body, at the next moment, the barrier separating man and beast vanished without a trace.

Realizing what had just happened, Harry _knew_ he was in deep, deep trouble. Uncle Vernon explicitly told him to reign his freakishness, the threat of punishment still lingering in his mind and body. The Boa seemed to notice his distress at the time, coiling tenderly around his torso, its head resting on his shoulder.

_“Why are you dissstressed, young Speaker?”_ Harry glossed over the fact that he _could_ understand the snake as well as it understood him, his mind racing thinking on the upcoming beating he would receive.

_“My fam…My relatives they…they are going to kill me for this”_ He stammered

_“What!”_ Harry felt the fury in the snake’s hisses “ _You are but a hatchling! You musst be protected by your kin, not attacked, no matter if they hatched you or not!”_

Harry thought about it for a moment, the snake made sense in a way. He started doubting if they really were his kin, though.

_“It doesn’t matter, I live with them, I don’t have anywhere else to go. I…you should leave, people will come soon. If they see you out here they’ll put you back in the enclosure or worse.”_

He felt a small amount of pressure coming from the snake, not anything threatening. If he were to put it in human terms, he would say that it was a snake’s attempt at hugging.

_“I will not leave you, young Hatchling, to thosse who would ssek to harm you! You gave me my freedom and I’ll make ssure you’ll have yourss”_

“ _Wha...Bu…How? I’m only a kid, what can I do?”_

The boa bopped his cheek reassuringly _“You are not jusst a ‘kid’, Speaker. You are a Speaker, our kind knowss all about the Speaker’s greatnesss ssince before we hatch. You are powerful, you jusst need to learn to control your power”_ It then looked at him in the eyes “ _but firsst we musst make ssure you ssurvive, sso we musst leave now!”_

Harry didn’t even had time to think before he nodded, something inside him told him that this was his chance, his opportunity to leave the infernal home he had been living at since he was a toddler. With the resolve he never knew he had in him he took step after step before breaking into a run, leaving the zoo, his _family_ and his nightmares behind.

After all, living with a serpent couldn’t really be that much worse than living with the Dursleys, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one ended a bit differently than what i wanted when i started writing it. 
> 
> Regardless, i hope you enjoyed it! :D


	4. Chapter 4

It turns out it could be worse. At least the first few weeks felt like _hell_ in comparison.

In spite of Harry’s usual older-than-his-age wisdom somehow, he _couldn’t_ foresee that the living habits of snakes and that of humans were radically different, if not alien to each other.

The most blatantly obvious of which was the place they chose to sleep in the first nights. Unlike humans, snakes _can_ sleep inside hollowed out tree trunks, small caves or basically anywhere they can fit and is reasonably protected from the elements. As it turns out people need, for the most part, a bigger, flat-y space where they can lie down (snakes and their coiling properties be damned) to rest for the night.

Humans also need time to adapt to a new sleeping schedule and going from strictly diurnal to a mixed or even nocturnal lifestyle can mess up an average 9-year-old badly if not done correctly.

Fortunately for both parties involved, Harry was anything but average. Years of slaving off to his relatives made him resilient in the most peculiar of ways. He wasn’t going to win any marathon soon, nor excel at athletics competitions. He, however, had an incredible adaptability bordering on _miraculous_.

Really, if anything else, Harry’s ability to remain alive was something famous writers and philosophers would write about in the distant future. His less-than-pleasant stay with the Dursleys taught him the basic survival skills that would later evolve to preternatural levels. He was by no means an experienced survivalist; however, he was able to make-do with whatever he had at hand to at least delay his expiring date for as long as possible.

Living for so many years in such a cramped space as a cupboard turned out to be a positive perk in his most recent snake-capade, had he his scaley companion’s ability to coil unto himself, he was sure he could live virtually _anywhere_. As it stands out, his short stature (product of years of malnutrition) also came into his aid whenever the unlikely duo had to pick a place to sleep.

Never before had he been grateful for living nearly starved for most of his life.

On the subject of food, whilst he could appreciate a full meal (not that he ever had one in recent memory), he was neither a glutton nor squeamish about his food. While the serpent-bro spent a few hours each day hunting small rodents or birds inside the forest, Harry was content with gathering roots, berries and other sorts of natural foodstuff. Much to his amusement, he found a weird sense of joy imagining his cousin Dudley _attempting_ to live through on his current living conditions, he chortled loudly when he reached the conclusion that he wouldn’t last even three hours.

Not being picky when eating also meant that Harry could complement his foraging diet with whatever insect-kind he could find in the forest.

All things considered, after a month in his new, wilder lifestyle, he could confidently say that he was doing way better than with the Dursleys. The experiences he had been through so far were rewarding, if not challenging.

It also helped a lot that, lately, the girl in his dreams was an almost constant whenever he went to sleep. Mayhaps it was the one saving grace that allowed most of his sanity to remain intact.


End file.
